“Okay, then! Let’s get started! Blood injected!” Maria said in a singsong lilt. As she did, she stabbed Luquille in the gut with her tail to inject the blood. Every time the tail pulsed, the veins in Luquille’s body would pop out unnaturally.
“Grk...uugghhh... Agg—ghaaaah!”
Luquille’s expression was filled with agony as her blood vessels became visible. The more her vessels bulged, the louder she screamed. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she started crying blood. Quite honestly, she was not doing well. Since she was restrained by chains, she wasn’t affecting her surroundings, but without them she would likely have been thrashing around in pain, destroying the cave.
“These magically made chains sure are tough, as one would expect of Isabel-chan the barrier specialist. This feeling of safety is great!” Maria exclaimed happily.
“H-Hey, shouldn’t you stop there, Maria-chan?” Patrick hesitantly asked. “It feels like it would be bad if you pumped in too much blood...”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’ll be fine. Luquille-chan herself told me to go all out, and this is just me eyeballing it, but I think she can take some more!” Maria replied happily.
“Um...really? Actually, wait, didn’t you just cut your arm off? You’re not going to use the blood that came out of there?” Patrick asked.
“Aha ha, that was just for show,” Maria said. “What use would trying to dump a bunch of blood down her mouth be? It’s much more efficient to inject it straight from my tail. Look, my arm’s already back to normal, see?” With that, she showed off the arm she’d just severed, proving that it had fully healed. There wasn’t any trace of the wound left.
“More importantly, Patrick, should you not get ready too?” Addams asked. “This is the perfect time to use your Authority.”
“Oh, right! Yes! I hereby manifest my Authority! And now, put your soul into the dice roll!” Patrick shouted.
After transforming, he rolled the dice using his Authority, hoping to support Luquille as much as possible by obtaining the best result possible.
“Together, my dice make a d100, meaning there are up to a hundred different results!” Patrick explained. “The lower the result, the better fate will go for us, while the higher the number, the worse the fate that awaits us! The exception is a roll of 100, which is special and is completely unpredictable! When these were rolled before, Maria-chan was summoned!”
“Huh? Izzat so?” Maria responded with interest. “So we’re aiming for a 100?”
“Why would you try to make this even more of a gamble?!” Patrick exclaimed. “We’re obviously aiming for a 1!”
“Hrm...” Addams muttered.
The trio watched the dice roll as Luquille screamed and writhed in agony. They rolled and bounced, eventually losing momentum and...
“Ah! Crap...” Maria let out before the dice fully stopped.
“Uh, erm...Maria-chan? Is it just me or did you say something really ominous? Is something wrong?” Patrick asked.
“Oh, no, nothing’s wrong,” Maria replied. “I absolutely did not just pour more blood into Luquille-chan than I meant to because I was so distracted by the dice or anything.”
“Yeah, you definitely did! You definitely got distracted and made a mistake, didn’t you?!” Patrick exclaimed.
He was most likely right. Maria reacted with panic, retracting her tail and averting her eyes in guilt.
“Gah... Buh... Bah!” Luquille burbled.
“Luquille’s been making a face no beautiful woman should be making for a while now! And those sounds she’s letting out...” Patrick said worriedly.
“Uhhh, err, ughh... I only put in a little extra, so I think Luquille-chan can still handle it given how persistent she is! Yeah!” Maria said.
She made her excuses vigorously but still refused to meet anyone’s eyes.
“Oh crap! This is bad!” Patrick shouted.
“Hm... This certainly is a difficult situation,” said Addams. “But more importantly, the dice are about to stop.”
“Ah, right! If the dice turn up a good result here, it could still work out! Like, she could get even stronger with the extra blood! Oh god of fate, god of gambling, please bless these dice!” Patrick exclaimed.
“Hey, aren’t you praying to yourself there?” Maria pointed out.
“Okay, then I’ll be the one to bless the dice! Come on, look, I’m blessing you, my dice! So be good!” Patrick shouted. He put on a forced smile, and the dice finally stopped.
The result was...91.
“Gaaahh!” Patrick screamed. He fell to the floor upon confirming the result. It wasn’t the special result like before and not a low number like they wanted. A roll of 91 was, in fact, almost the exact opposite of what they were aiming for.
“Ah! Maybe my eyesight suddenly got a lot worse and I’m seeing it wrong? Yeah, that’s definitely a possibility. Likely, even,” said Patrick.
With that excuse, he checked the result over and over, but nothing changed. The number was 91, meaning they would be met with the worst of fates.
“Gah! Gagagagagagagagagaw!”
“L-Luquille?!”
The screams Luquille had been letting out, which had barely been identifiable as her voice, suddenly became something completely different—a strange laugh that made one’s hairs stand on end. The voice was no longer hers and sounded as if it were being made by some unknown monster.
“Ah, this might be really, really bad,” said Maria. “Looks like my blood is going totally berserk. Hm...even my blood is sprightly!”
“Oh sure, you can act casual about this. I’m basically the one who put the nail in the coffin!” Patrick exclaimed.
“Gakyakyakyakyakya!”
While Patrick was steeping in his regret, Luquille continued to change, not just in voice but in body as well. Her flesh swelled greatly, morphing her from an angel into something much more monstrous. There was no longer the faintest trace of her divine good looks, only some golden hair still clinging to her head. Since she was still bound in chains, her swelling flesh grew around it, looking painful and constrained.
Patrick had been plunged into the depths of despair after losing the gamble, and Maria seemed to be feeling quite guilty as well. Basically, the group had given up.
Among them, only Addams was still calm. “You may think this surprising,” he said after a moment’s pause, “but as a normal person, I am into pottery. Even before the great war, I would spend my free time working with clay.” He had calmly started talking about his hobby for some reason.
“Huh?”
“What? Uh, er, Addams, what are you talking about?”
“I am just a normal person talking about his hobby, which happens to be pottery. Or would its wonderful nature come across better if I were to describe it as the noble art of pursuing the ideal form with one’s hands?”
Both Maria and Patrick reacted in unison with visible and audible confusion. Unfortunately, what Addams was saying wasn’t getting through to them.
“The materials can be anything,” Addams continued. “If the materials are bad, that contains its own charm, while good materials increase one’s options. And if you add scent to the work, it brings out a whole new facet to the hobby. Clay is a truly excellent material with infinite possibilities. The shapes it can be made into are truly limitless. My Authority, Education, is much the same. Now, Luquille, the fragrance of Maria’s blood has been added to your powerfully twisted faith, obsession, and vengeful heart and been presented to me...so be proud. This odd material is something not even my normal self has ever seen. Ah, what a good material. I can make something extraordinary with this.”
With that, he gently laid a hand on Luquille’s monstrous form.